La Luna Review: Daring, Charming Malaysian Dramedy About A City Girl Who Opens Lingerie Shop In Conservative Village

La Luna (PG13)

Starring Shaheizy Sam, Sharifah Amani, Wan Hanafi Su

Directed by M Raihan Halim

A bold, independent-minded woman from the city goes to a sleepy conservative village, Kampong Bras Basah, in Malaysia to brazenly open a shocking lingerie shop, La Luna. Its big neon sign proclaims the arrival of a social earthquake.

Probably not since the late Malaysian director Yasmin Ahmad's groundbreaking movies have we seen iconoclasm like this. Unsurprisingly, La Luna, written and directed by Singaporean filmmaker, M Raihan Halim (Banting), stars Ahmad's headstrong muse, Sharifah Amani (Sepet, Gubra).

She plays Hanie Abdullah, a modern miss who inherits a rundown wooden house amid the padi fields and turns it ostensibly into a colourful shop selling female underwear, but quietly, a place of refuge for women only.

“No men allowed” declares the sign. Banning even the police chief, Salihin (Shaheizy Sam), a secretly progressive good man equipped with a tendency to mansplain things, and a liberal, dying-for-change teenage daughter, Azura (Syumaila Salihin), who’s elated to find a Footloose ally to stick it to the “fascist” elders.

That’s the village head, Tok Hassan (veteran Malaysian actor Wan Hanafi Su in a terrific, yet calmly terrifying role), the unyielding change opponent lurking in venomous daylight, hellbent on eradicating the work of “Satan” here.

“Your shop has contaminated the purity of my village,” he sneers.

It’s a defiant intrusion into a traditional community which unnerves us watching this languidly paced, enjoyably funny and charmingly portrayed dramedy that’s brought closer to home by both its setting and cast looking so normal and relatable. Kudos to this brave little flick; we’re not used to witnessing such challenges.

The bra-and-panties shop evokes, predictably, two undiscovered matters.

The residents, notably the women, are awakened hilariously out of their sexual stupor. An OTT couple suddenly mate like rabbits even inside an AV room where their kinky stuff is broadcast comically to a stunned populace. 

And gosh, should we be concerned that religion is put under such cultural stress?

Here, you become aware of writer-director Halim’s skill in making this a story about censorship rather than a dig about faith. He cleverly paints the secular village leader as the baddie instead of his aide, the religious teacher, who resists his fanatical self-preservation. 

At which point, you wish for even more daring exposes beyond a convincingly dangerous fracture between Singaporean actor Hisyam Hamid and Malaysian actress Nadiya Nisaa as a wife beater threatening his abused spouse.

But we can’t really protest too much as this pic lulls us into a sort of comfort zone that makes us wanna cross the Causeway to see a movie under the moonlight as depicted here.    

We have seen this tale numerous times before from various countries.

But this likeable film, pivoting from a “God is watching” stance to a “God is loving” embrace, is truly something wonderful to behold. (3.5/5 stars)

Photo: Golden Village Pictures/Clover Films